Hope for Your Heart: Finding Strength in Life's Storms (8 page)

Made of sturdy cloth like either a giant sail or a parachute, the sea anchor is lowered into the water to create a drag and slow the vessel, especially when water depth is too great for an anchor to grab hold of the bottom.

Jesus is our anchor.
Like the sea anchor, Jesus stabilizes us when we feel like a ship haplessly tossed about on the water . . . out of control . . . because of a compulsive addiction or besetting sin. In the depth of our souls, He slows us down, helping us to see how our continual wrong choices will ruin our relationships and shatter our dreams. Jesus anchors us when the powerful waves of personal disappointment leave us in deep despair . . . perhaps even so much so that suicide is considered . . . something,
anything
to stop the pain. Even in the most troubling, turbulent times, Jesus is our Anchor . . . even in the darkest part of the deep.

Biblical example
: As a prisonerfacing possible death, the apostle Paul was being transported by ship to Rome to stand trial. In the midst of hurricane-strength winds, the crew lost control of the ship. The tempestuous wind tossed the ship like a weightless cork toward the shore. In an attempt to diminish their speed, they let down the
sea anchor
. This was their only hope of not crashing into sandbars at a speed that would cause certain death.

Paul stood up before them and said: “. . . I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost. . . . Keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God.” (Acts 27:21–22, 25)

Jesus has proven Himself to be my personal “sea” anchor
when life has careened off course and all hope seemed to be lost. Since giving my life to Christ, there have been times when I wanted my life to be over. Not that I wanted to kill myself—I didn’t have a plan for doing so. However, at certain times my soul has been so anguished that I simply didn’t care to go on living. . . . I just wanted to go
Home
.

How clearly I recall one such instance. I was sitting in my breakfast nook, contemplating one of the most painful situations I’d ever faced as a follower of Christ. Yet I remember, amidst the pain, being surprised at my perspective. My internal conversation went something like this:

“I am dreading the inevitable pain I’m about to face. However, I recognize that in the past God has used my pain to build compassion, empathy, and insight in my life. Even though I am going to hurt . . . and hurt badly . . . like all pain before it, this pain has a beginning, but it will also have an end. I am going to grow, and I am going to learn. In the process I am going to hold on to God’s promises and believe that He will never fail me as I place my hope in Him. First Peter 1:6–7 will be true in my life: Now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

I wish I could say I’ve approached every crisis with mature hope and faith. I have not. But what peace I have known when I have chosen, as an act of my will, to place my hope in God despite my circumstances, anchoring my future and my faith in Him! He has never failed me, and, my friend, He will never fail you.

Have you ever been storm-tossed, in pain, and you didn’t know what to do? So you said, “Lord, where are You? Why aren’t You here? I don’t see You helping me at all!”

Realize, although each of the five anchors are different, they share one very important characteristic: If they are doing their job,
you won’t
see them
!They always perform their job sight unseen. They are always invisible to those onboard . . . to those who hope they will be held tight.

You don’t have to “see” anchors to know that they’re working. What’s going on above the surface lets you know what’s going on below the surface.

But anchors stowed away in a ship’s stern while storms rage can only be considered valueless, useless, powerless. They must be purposefully put to use, their intended function applied when the ship is vulnerable and unsteady, when it’s capable of capsizing from tremendous environmental pressures.

In ancient times ships had an
anchorarius
, a forerunner.
⁹
This sailor went before and was in charge of the ship’s main anchor. The forerunner, along with other sailors, would carry the anchor inside a smaller boat and set it down in a safe harbor.

Although the huge ship remained outside the harbor, it was

anchored close to the shore. The anchor firmly held the ship against turbulent winds and waves that would otherwise push it out to sea or cause it to crash against the rocky shoreline.

Once on land, the original forerunner was the one person chosen to run to a designated place before all others, arriving for three purposes:

• to give notice of their approach,
  
• to take possession in their name,
  
• to prepare for their arrival.
  ¹⁰
  

We also have a forerunner, a spiritual forerunner, and His name is Jesus. Following His resurrection, He led the way to heaven to prepare a place for us, ensuring that we too will be raised to live a new life in heaven.

Jesus is your
anchorarius
, your steadfast hope, your sturdy anchor, keeping you afloat when the buckling winds and battering waves slam against you. No storm is strong enough to separate you from your Almighty Anchor . . . not even an inch. Nothing is destructive enough to detach you from your Anchor. He holds you firm and secure.

This is God’s promise to every authentic Christian:

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain [heaven], where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. (Heb. 6:19–20)

Ultimately Jesus will lead you to your final home . . . the safe harbor of heaven. And there the storms of life will stop and be forever still.

To help you always remember that God is the only Anchor we can truly rely on and to help you clearly understand what biblical, Christian hope is, ponder the following points based on the acronym ANCHOR:

• A
  ccept Christ as your only hope. “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you” (Eph. 1:18).
  
• N
  ever put your hope in what is seen but in what is unseen. “In this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:24–25 esv).
  
• C
  laim the plans God has for your future. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).
  
• H
  ope in the redeeming power of God. “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Ps. 42:5–6 ).
  
• O
  ffer genuine faith, hope, and love to other Christians. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven” (Col. 1:3–5).
  
• R
  each out to others so they might know the hope of His calling. “Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption” (Ps. 130:7).
  

Ships at sea cannot survive severe storms without the use of anchors. And if you are anchorless on the “sea of life,” neither will you survive. Traumatic tides of trouble will wash you ashore . . . beaten, battered, and bemoaning the purposelessness of it all. But with Jesus as your Anchor you not only have
peace
, you have
perspective
—that no pain is pointless, that all that happens to you is purposeful as God unfolds His perfect plan for your life.

And that perfect plan involves
storms
, according to God’s infinite wisdom. But because of God’s infinite love, He has provided an invincible Anchor that will never let go of you.

He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge. (Ps. 144:2)

The USS
Constitution
sailed out of Chesapeake Bay, headed northward for New York in the early weeks of the War of 1812. Her crew was dismayed to encounter a large squadron of British warships. The fleet—including four mid-sized warships and one smaller ship—clearly had the
Constitution
outnumbered, outmanned, outgunned
.

In his official report to the Secretary of the Navy, Captain Isaac Hull described the threat: “Saw two frigates . . . One within five or six miles and [four vessels] about ten to twelve miles . . . all in chase of us . . . coming up very fast.”
¹²

Throughout the night of July 17, the British ships sailing under the Union Jack jockeyed for position to overtake the lone vessel flying the Stars and Stripes. As the ocean breezes stilled to a dead calm, Captain Hull further documented the crisis: “It soon appeared . . . that our escape was impossible . . . and not the least hope of a breeze, to give us a chance of . . . out-sailing them.”
¹³

But Captain Hull soon came up with an alternative strategy to save the vessel. He would try to keep the
Constitution
out of harm’s way . . . by
kedging
.

Captain Hull ordered a small boat to tow two of the
Constitution
’sanchors far ahead of the ship and then drop them into the ocean. As soon as the anchors were deployed (about 2,400 feet ahead of the ship), the seamen on deck immediately began winding the rope onto the capstan, drawing the
Constitution
toward the anchors in the sea and away from the pursuing ships. The process was repeated again and again, and soon the ship slipped out of danger. However, the enemy ships, also stalled because there was no wind, copied Captain Hull’s clever naval strategy.

For the next two days and nights the kedging continued. Although shots were fired, the
Constitution
steadily increased her lead, and eventually the British gave up their pursuit.

Just like the
Constitution,
you may find yourself stalled with no wind in your sails. You’re in a helpless situation . . . you need to move out of harm’s way. It’s then that you need an Anchor not just to steady you but also to draw you away from a destructive situation . . . to draw you away from danger. As with kedging, the more you draw near to the Anchor, the more you move out of danger.

Jesus works in our lives like a kedge anchor, moving us out of harm’s way, drawing us closer to Him. The spiritual rode connecting us to Him is unbreakable. We are forever attached to our Anchor as He leads us across the seas of life.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (James. 4:8 esv)

“You have cancer. You will have a mastectomy. You will lose your hair.”

Those were the exact words spoken to me rapid-fire and matter-of-factly by the radiologist in October 2001. I was stunned. The whole situation seemed surreal, and the diagnosis immediately sent my thoughts spinning.
But I have to speak at a conference in Baltimore in two days
and right after that in New York. I don’t have time for cancer.

How can this be right? I have no family history of breast cancer. I’ve never
even considered it a possibility.

And what does my hair have to do with this? If I have cancer and need to
have a mastectomy, my hair is the least of my concerns.

I should also point out that this diagnosis came a month after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. My personal crisis occurred at almost the same time as our horrendous national crisis. Neither crisis took God by surprise . . .
that
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. But still I found myself longing for and needing more . . .
hope
.